I'm not angry, Leicester – I'm disappointed. And now it's time to change the narrative
And breathe. Take a moment, relax and thank your friendly neighbourhood deity that it’s finally all over. This has been a brutal summer at Leicester City, far beyond what we’d imagined or even feared, and from which we’re now forced to collect the pieces and get on with things.
Let’s start with the good news: we don’t have to torment ourselves about who we might (not) sign any longer – this is our lot. We’re not waving goodbye to any more key players for at least another four months. We did actually sign a centre-back. And Youri Tielemans is still around.
And… well, that’s about it. For even the most optimistic and trusting of Leicester fans, this has been a summer that started badly, got worse and is impossible to sugar-coat. Brendan Rodgers has spent the last six months of his life wishing the word ‘refresh’ was obliterated from English vocabulary, having instead been thrown to the wolves since uttering that dreaded word in February and being torn limb from limb.
There’s much to criticise Rodgers for right now despite that (which I won’t start on here), and I’m among the not-so-silent majority who think a change of management may be the only way to solve this mess – but fundamentally I think it’s worth reiterating that we’re talking about a good bloke who’s delivered some great times to Filbert Way. I take absolutely zero pleasure in the situation that’s befallen our manager, even if some of it is self-inflicted.
But I have felt a teeny bit sorry for Rodgers over the last few weeks. Not so much that he wasn’t able to manoeuvre in the market – not ideal, but it was laid out to him very clearly from the beginning, leaving him absolutely certain about where he stood and what his task ahead was – but more that until deadline day, no one else within the club had fronted up to what’s taken place this summer. Because this hasn’t just been a slight change in the usual schedule. This has been a harsh, brake-slamming, whiplash-insurance-claim of an emergency stop – and fundamentally, it’s been a decision much bigger than the manager alone.
You could argue it’s just part of Rodgers’ job to be the face, but that seems a bit harsh when much of this hapless summer has actually been out of his control: the finances; his head of recruitment’s exit to Atalanta; the new one not being able to start until September; Brexit making it harder than expected to get a set-piece coach; more injuries; a very valuable wantaway kicking up a major stink.
In my first draft of this story, written on Wednesday, I suggested that the heat in general could have been a little less intense had Top put out a reassuring statement that explained things, brought the fanbase together and nodded at King Power’s continued commitment in the face of scurrilous rumours otherwise. After all, the mood might be varying shades of doom right now, but fans do tend to understand numbers. Space-age training grounds are expensive. Stadium expansions cost a bit. COVID wasn’t a laugh. Not being in Europe isn’t terrific for business. Chucking 85% of your turnover on players’ wages doesn’t merrily sing ‘sustainability’ at a boardroom table.
That statement did indeed come the following day, via Top’s programme column ahead of the Manchester United game:
Because ultimately, there is plenty of justification for the club’s stance this summer. We might not like it, but we would quite like to see Leicester act sensibly where others haven’t in chasing dreams we’ve been very thankful to live out already. The troubling part is that it all feels so haphazard; so sloppy and out of keeping with how we’ve been run in recent years. Some of it may be bad luck, but clearly we’re suffering as a result of some miserable recruitment last summer – nothing says woeful failure like trying (and failing) to flog players you bought mere months earlier – and more than a couple of ill-advised contracts. If you get that big stuff wrong at this level, you pay a heavy price. Very literally.
It all has a knock-on effect. While you can't shift the lads you handed massive contracts to last summer, other targets flicker out of sight: Levi Colwill to Brighton, even while we were doing a deal with Chelsea; Ibrahim Sangaré to a new contract; Noni Madueke to affordability and injury; Manuel Akanji to Manchester City's bench.
Instead, you end up with daft situations like this (re our reported pursuit of Atalanta's Jeremie Boga). And we still didn’t even sign him. It’s yet to be determined, but have we gone too far in our frugality?
Instead, Bouba Soumaré and Dennis Praet, the midfielders we've been trying to flog all summer, are suddenly starting at Stamford Bridge out of nowhere, five days before the transfer window closes. A genius succession plan in case Tielemans had gone, clearly. But even with Youri staying unexpectedly, our squad is still significantly weaker than it was last season, shorn as it is of Kasper Schmeichel, Wesley Fofana and Ademola Lookman. That is not good.
The funny (haha!) thing is that the sloppiness hasn't been restricted to… well, anywhere at the club recently. There's been a mishap with ticket loyalty points, dodgy matchday graphic timings, and maybe the best until last – accidentally releasing the new away kit like this:
The football has been a bleak sideshow to the madness so far. As James Knight wrote here, though, playing badly has nothing to do with the fact we haven’t signed anyone – and I for one am fed up with that narrative Rodgers has been peddling since the players reported back for pre-season. It immediately rankled at the time and does even more now, looking at how things have played out. On Thursday night, he took an even gloomier turn.
But these are the times you need your manager to stop moping like a dosed-up donkey and start rabble-rousing, fostering the kind of us-against-the-world mentality that eventually led this club to seven wins from nine and set off an utterly bonkers chain of events in 2014-15.
So come on, Brendan. Either go or change the narrative while you still can. This is your ostrich moment.
